This month, we are working to prioritize the inclusion of topics related to anti-racism and racial justice in writing studies. We aim to work together to address inequities on Wikipedia as we create and contribute to these articles.
Start by signing in or creating an account and clicking the button below to sign in to the event page. This will allow us to track your progress, offer specific tips and tricks, and acknowledge your accomplishments!
In the CCCC Position Statement on Citation Justice in Rhetoric, Composition, and Writing Studies, writing scholars are called to recognize that “citation is not only a way we build ethos and credibility for making arguments, but perhaps more importantly, a decision to amplify some voices over others, and an argument about whose voices and perspectives are valid, credible, and worth drawing from as we build knowledge in the discipline.” As a highly viewed, global, open-access, digital encyclopedia, Wikipedia stands out as one of the most vital platforms scholars can edit to support citation justice, especially for academics committed to knowledge equity as a fundamental groundwork for social justice.
When writing in citations and content that represent the diversity of fields and subfields in writing studies, we encourage scholars to practice the following heuristic put forth by the CCCC Position Statement on Citation Justice in Rhetoric, Composition, and Writing Studies:
Citation justice is intersectional.
Citation justice reflects the full scope of multiply marginalized people’s intellectual contributions.
Citation justice resists and rejects intellectual empire building.
This month we are referencing the CCCC position statements on Social and Linguistic Justice and Antiracist Pedagogies to incorporate scholars and scholarship into relevant articles on anti-racism and racial justice in writing studies.
Below we have listed individual position statements with a suggested vital and field-specific article that would benefit from that statement. We encourage you to explore the diversity of scholarship referenced in each position statement, alongside the suggested articles, scholars, and scholarship we have compiled. For additional references, please check out Dr. Christopher Castillo's bibliography for his presentation on "Burning our Fingers: An Intersectional Grapple with The Steel Cage of Racism."
Martinez, A.Y. (2020). Counterstory: The rhetoric and writing of critical race theory. National Council of Teachers of English, CCCC Studies in Writing and Rhetoric.
Itchuaqiyaq, Cana Uluak; Litts, Breanne; Suarez, Mario Itzel; Taylor, Cree; and Glass, Christy M., "Citation as a Critical Practice" (2020). Intersections on Inclusion: Critical Conversations about the Academy.
Itchuaqiyaq, C. U., Ranade, N., & Walton, R. (2021). Theory-to-query: Developing a corpus-analysis method using computer programming and human analysis. Technical Communication, 68(3), 7-28. [2]
Itchuaqiyaq, C. U., & Frith, J. (2022). Citational practices as a site of resistance and radical pedagogy: positioning the multiply marginalized and underrepresented (MMU) scholar database as an infrastructural intervention. Communication Design Quarterly Review, 10(3), 10-19.
Jones, N. N. (2014). The importance of ethnographic research in activist networks. In Miriam F. Williams and Octavio Pimentel (Eds.), Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication, Taylor & Francis, pp. 46–61.
Jones, N. N. (2016). Narrative inquiry in human-centered design: Examining silence and voice to promote social justice in design scenarios. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 46(4), 471-492.
Jones, N. N., & Williams, M. F. (2018). Technologies of disenfranchisement: Literacy tests and black voters in the US from 1890 to 1965. Technical Communication, 65(4), 371-386.
Jones, N. N., & Williams, M. F. (2018). Technologies of disenfranchisement: Literacy tests and black voters in the US from 1890 to 1965. Technical Communication, 65(4), 371-386.
Williams, M. F. (2017). From Black codes to recodification: Removing the veil from regulatory writing. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. [3]
Williams, M. F., & Pimentel, O. (2014). Communicating race, ethnicity, and identity in technical communication. Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.
Smitherman, G. (2000). Talkin that talk: Language and education in Black America. New York, NY: Routledge.
Smitherman, G., & Baugh, J. (2002). The shot heard from Ann Arbor: Language research and public policy in African America. Howard Journal of Communication, 13(1), 5–24.
Smitherman, G. (2006). Word from the mother: Language and African Americans. New York, NY: Routledge.
Canagarajah, S. (2006) The place of world Englishes in composition: Pluralization continued.” College Composition and Communication, 57(4), pp. 586–619.
Matsuda, P.K. (2006). The myth of linguistic homogeneity in U.S. college composition.” College English, 68(6), 637–51.
Matsuda, P. K., Cox, M., Jordan, J., & Ortmeier-Hooper, C. (Eds.). (2006). Second-language writing in the composition classroom: A critical sourcebook. Macmillan.
O’Meara, K. D., Snyder, S. E., & Matsuda, P. K. (2015). Professionalizing the field of second language writing: The 13th Symposium on Second Language Writing (SSLW 2014). Journal of Second Language Writing, 28, 36–38. [5]
Inoue, A. (2019). How do we language so people stop killing each other, or What do we do about white language supremacy? CCC, 71(2), 352–369.
Inoue, A. (2019). Labor-based grading contracts: Building equity and inclusion in the compassionate writing classroom. WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado.
Inoue, A. (2021). Above the well: An antiracist argument from a boy of color. WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado.
Kynard, C. (2007). “I want to be African”: In search of a Black radical tradition/African-American-vernacularized paradigm for “Students’ Right to Their Own Language,” critical literacy, and “Class Politics.” College English, 69(4), 360–390.
Kynard, C. (2008). Writing while Black: The colour line, Black discourses and assessment in the institutionalization of writing instruction. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 7(2), 4–34.
Kynard, C. (2018). Stayin’ woke: Race radical literacies in the makings of a higher education. CCC, 69(3), 519–529.
Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy'. Routledge & National Council of Teachers of English.
Baker-Bell, A., Jones Stanbrough, R. J., & Everett, S. (2017). The stories they tell: Mainstream media, pedagogies of healing, and critical media literacy. English Education, 49(2), 130–52.
Richardson, E. (2004). Coming from the heart: African American students, literacy stories, and rhetorical education. In E. B. Richardson & R. L. Jackson II (Eds.), African American rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 155–69). Southern Illinois University Press.
* Vital articles are articles deemed most important by the Wikipedia editing community to improve to the highest content quality standard.
The CCCC Wikipedia Initiative hosts monthly workshops, office hours, and coffeehouses. If you need some help getting started, have specific questions, or would like to find space to work on your article alongside your collaborators, these are great spaces to do so.
Curious about how different people navigate editing Wikipedia? Drop-in whenever you'd like from 11:00am-12:00am ET on Twitch where the CCCC Wikipedian-in-residence will live edit Wikipedia on a different topic focus.
This month, Dr. Chistopher Castillo will present on "Burning our Fingers: An Intersectional Grapple with the Steel Cage of Racism." This talk uses the story of a racist encounter and its aftermath to draw attention to the racialized emotions that circulate in professional academic spaces (including writing programs, graduate programs, and departments) that must be addressed as part of anti-racist efforts. Highlighting both the harm done by what the speaker refers to as “racist fuck ups” and the habits of dialogue and self-reflection that make accountability possible in harm's aftermath, the speaker suggests that consistent attention to the emotional valence of racism and anti-racist work will better equip writing studies to confront its investments in institutional white supremacy.
After the talk, participants will be trained on how to edit Wikipedia. There will be opportunities to improve and create Wikipedia articles related to pivotal scholars and scholarship on anti-racism and racial justice in writing studies.
If you would like to discuss something Wikipedia-related one-on-one or get help with a Wikipedia article you’re working on, please feel free to sign up for my office hours or email me to suggest another time (savannahcragin@berkeley.edu).
